Banjos in Salem! Rain in Olympia!

I drove through a strange haze up through the familiar fields on either side of I5 and was quickly in Salem to visit John Adams and his wonderful collection of banjos. I got set up in the driveway, and then we played tunes, a lot of them with me on the fiddle, which was painful, but John is a heckuva nice guy.

I discovered that a neighbor had a great wifi network, though, and got in trouble staying up till about 2 a.m. doing the blog. I should have been doing work if anything, but at least I got a little caught up.

Rain! I Must Be Almost Home!
The next morning, I headed out crying, "Narnia and the North!" (Some of you, most notably my brother, will recognize this quotation.) I had the first serious breathing problem of the trip trying to drive through Portland. Don't know what was going on, but I think the I5 traffic is still problematic for me. Luckily, my silk mask took care of the problem, and once I was a way into good ol' WA, I was fine.

The first serious rain of the whole trip started to fall. I was definitely coming home.

I popped into Olympia just grinning from ear to ear. I love this town, even if they are developing themselves in a completely gross manner. People were dressed like me. I went right into Cafe Venita and got to work catching up, or trying to, with work. Got the Intel piece done and out, and got through most of my classwork. Chatted back and forth with folks and found out that John Flory, the wondrously kind and talented banjo meister, is very ill and in the hospital. So everyone pray for him or do whatever you can to help.

I met Jim and Paula Morgan, our dear friends who are putting me up, at The New Spar, which has been taken over by McMennamin's, and a good thing, too. Good tater tots and cool booths and good wifi. We had a huge dinner and went home, where I got to meet Buster the Wonder Dog, who is a huge sweetie but does like to jump. I got set up for the night, played a little Wade Ward with the computer, and went to bed!

Wednesday
This blog is winding down. I'm back at The Spar typing. I slept in till about 10:30 this morning until Jim pounded on the door and I chatted with him and our old friend Nilus, who is back in the area. Very good to see him!

Got to meet the Donkey boys, who are both huge, with Trotter being very curious and Abey (sp?) being very shy. Pictures coming.

Then I headed out for Value Village and really scored. I think VV is one of the things I miss most in PT. Gonna go out for Thai tonight and go see Pan's Labyrinth. Review to come.